One thing I have learned over and over again; it is impossible for me to live an obedient life to God without absolute surrender to Him. My natural inclination to resist the Lord is always lurking, ready to pounce on any opportunity it can find to retain what it thinks is its right to reject any form of adversity. The combative attitudes that surface immediately rob me of the peace and joy I experience when I am yielding myself to Him. The only option I have to recover is to immediately abandon my desire to escape the suffering and embrace the cross. In that moment, His peace and joy return in abundance. God’s ways are so much higher than my ways but they become mine when I surrender my will to Him.
"'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'"
Isaiah 55:8
"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."
Matthew 7:13-14